Introduction: Jigs, jigs and still more jigs. Amidst our continuing efforts to cover and review the latest and greatest in tackle trends and fishing techniques, it is difficult to go back and cover some of the tried and true basics. On the other hand, introduce an old basic with a new twist, and you'll quickly garner our attention. Enter Vertical Lures and their product, the JigX, a bait that combines the weed penetrating effectiveness of a bullet weighed plastic into, what else, a jig.

Impressions: From the well known mass produced jigs like Strike King and War Eagle to the little niche, and hand tied custom products like the TnT Wadda jig, there must be hundreds upon hundreds of jig alternatives on the market today. What is one of the most pervasive problem when fishing a jig? Snags. It seems the majority of snags can be attributed to head design and the position of the line tie eyelet. That's why we see a growing trend to try and integrate the line tie eyelet more closely into the actual head of the jig.

Introducing the Vertical Lures JigX

But Vertical Lures has taken a totally different approach. What they have done is to move the line tie eyelet to the middle of the jig and provide a path for your line to travel through the jighead thus protecting your knot and that awkward connection from causing potential
hang-ups. Instead, the theory is, the bullet shaped head of the JigX can be worked like a traditional, weighted Texas rig. Interesting and exciting concept, isn't it? Let's see how it pans out on the water!

Rigged and ready to go with a Yamamoto Flappin Hog

One of the rods we enjoyed fishing this product on was the Daiwa Steez Compile-X 7'1" heavy powered rod

The Field Tests: We've actually had the JigX in our boats for quite some time and have fished it on and off since late Spring 2006. The latest two rigs I've used while testing this bait were my F5-66X Bearing Down matched with a standard Daiwa Alphas 103L, and my latest favorite jig rod, the Daiwa STZ 711HFBA Compile-X matched with a 2004 Custom Daiwa TD-Z 103HL. Both rigs have different brands of one-hundred percent fluorocarbon lines spooled onto their reels.

Complete test rigs for Vertical Lures JigX Field Tests

Rig One

Rig Two

Rod

Megabass F5-66X Bearing Down

Daiwa STZ 711HFBA Compile-X

Reel

Daiwa Alphas 103L

Daiwa Custom TDZ 103HL

Line

12lb Gamma FC

14lb Sunline Shooter FC

See that hole at the tip of the JigX head?

That's where your line goes...

Pitching & Flipping: The line tying technique for this unique jig is shown in the accompanying photographs. Once secured to the end of the line, as one might expect, flipping and pitching is pretty much status quo. One difference though, in working this jig in and around likely heavy cover areas that might hold fish is that the head does seem to slip down a tad easier than other jigs. I say "seems" because it's a little difficult to be definitive with this statement given factors such as skirt material, skirt length, trailers, and angle of the jig's hook.

It comes out the back end here...

Where you tie onto the eyelet with a cinch knot (the San Diego Knot works here too)

Retrieving: I was able to work the JigX in a variety of ways, but it actually seemed best suited for applications where you either pitched or cast to a spot and worked the bait back to the boat through the water. With it's relatively shallow angle or horizontal line position coming out from the JigX's head, I felt it was less effective in actual flipping applications. Fished side by side with other jig products with a more advantageous lift angle, I received more hits.